Formidable ... When Ansfield filed their dissertation on this topic, in 2021, the response was rapturous. Prizes were heaped at their feet: best dissertation in American studies, in American history, at Yale (co-won), and so on. Reading their book, which is even sharper, you can see why. It’s a deft, at times brilliant history ... Ansfield’s great achievement is following the money ... Ansfield discusses these phenomena with admirable sensitivity.
An eye-opening, myth-busting analysis ... Ansfield makes a compelling argument that the essential ingredients stimulating the conflagrations were government-sponsored policies 'redlining' and cancellation of coverage by insurance companies that had left inner cities uninsured or underinsured for property damage.
For a book that is, at base, a story of the serpentine ways of the insurance industry, Born in Flames includes arresting images ... Ansfield has found a way to emphasize the moral in 'moral hazard.'
Riveting and meticulous ... Ansfield...movingly conveys the 'immense psychic toll' living among the fires took on tenants ... An outstanding exposé of the predatory capitalist machinations behind the 'Bronx is burning' saga.
A vital history ... Superlative ... Fire insurance is not often associated with gripping narratives, but as Ansfield demonstrates, discriminatory gaps in coverage incited a deadly, protracted spectacle ... Excellent.
